If there’s one good to reason rug up and head out on a wet and miserable Wednesday night, it’s got to be ‘Head On/Pill’.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s freakadelic opus is a tunnelling cosmic jam that pushes out past the 15-minute mark, and it has certainly become the Surf Coast group’s emphatic trump card.
Like ‘Shark Fin Blues’ is to The Drones’ live set, or what ‘Berlin Chair’ is to You Am I, it’s the kind of song that has Melbourne audiences hanging on until they get their fix.
From those first lone, warbling guitar notes to the opening lines “Just yesterday I sat across from my legs/They weren’t connected to me/And I couldn’t see ‘cos my eyes were in me/Hold me still while I screw my head on”, it is a signature song from a group that describe themselves as ‘completely fried theremin wielding psychopaths’.
The manner in which this number is so enthusiastically received by the audience may also be because, despite ‘Head On/Pill’’s odyssey-like length, lead singer Stu Mackenzie and co never allow the momentum to wane.
Rather, the song gathers in force as it morphs from initial star-gazing psychadelia, via some up-tempo double drumming and doo-wop vocal harmonies, into a fuzzy kraut-rock jam. It’s an engaging, versatile, musical grab bag, much like King Gizzard themselves.
The band specialise in this sort of eclectic, meandering garage-psych rock that is just made to be listened to live. Prior to the mind-warp odyssey that was ‘Head On/Pill’, the Melbourne group do a fine job of cruising through their prolific back catalogue, dipping into tracks from their albums 12 Bar Bruise and Float Along – Fill Your Lungs.
With two drum kits, three electric guitars, bass, harmonica, vocals, and an assortment of loopy effects, the group create a Spector-on-acid wall of sound, with the trippy vibe enhanced by the swirling psychedelic patterns projected on the screen above the stage.
‘Hot Wax’ in particular is a stand out; the scuzzy surf-rock number from the group’s latest record Oddments is powered along by a burly bass rhythm. It’s a song full of hip-shaking energy and Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s falsetto harmonies add a nicely ironic, Beach Boys-pop kind of edge.
The seven-headed behemoth swagger with the casual insouciance of Tame Impala’s cooler, wise-cracking younger brother (especially when Kenny-Smith tosses the contents of his pint glass over the heaving crowd).
The epic ‘Head On/Pill’ is the last song of the band’s mid-week set at the Old Bar, a sold out show that has people packed into the tiny, sweaty band room and spilling out of the doorways.
It’s clear that King Gizzard’s following continues to grow, and with good reason – these guys give a stellar live performance, transforming even a cold and rainy Melbourne night into a wild trip.
